Self-care education can play an important role in improving the quality of life in hemodialysis patients.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of self-care education with teach back method on the quality of life in hemodialysis patients.

In this pre- and post-test clinical trial, 45 patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing hemodialysis at Sina hospital in Tehran were included. Patient education was done with teach back method. The duration of training were 3 sessions and the time of each session lasted from 45 minutes to one hour. To collect data from patients, a demographic questionnaire was used and to assess the quality of life of patients, kidney disease quality of life-short form before and after education was used. A significant level of 5% was determined.

The mean age of patients was 58.49±9.97 years. Among the dimensions of quality of life before education, the highest score was for physical role (64.24±7.68) and the lowest was related to job status (28.33±11.06). After training, the most score was related to emotional role (71.15±2.84) and the least was related to job status (43.87±11.54). A significant difference between the quality of life at before and after education was seen (P=0.000).

This study showed that self-care education through teach back method improves the quality of life in hemodialysis patients. Therefore, it is recommended that nurses in the hemodialysis unit implement self-care education through teach back method as an important task.